mls opener

aaaaaaaaaaaaand....they lost. {loud sigh, shakes head}

well, not just lost, but spanked. 4-0. dude. after a bs call against xavier that resulted in a pk (in which colorado scored), the game went downhill super fast. boys gave up and then it turned into a "bar-brawl" scene. yup, abel got red-carded for going after the ref for a call against him, with of course david trying to keep abel back & things from escalating further {swoons}. then about a minute later carlos ruiz gets taken down and landon gets in on the action by shoving the rook that tackled ruiz. both teams make a bee-line toward the scuffle, including david who again went to take care of his teammate's testosterone-filled urge to fight. rookie ended up getting sent off. next game: thursday @ 9:30pm central against san jose (galaxy's former coach & goal keeper-joe cannon).

*jules-heads up: girlfriend will probably be struggling friday morning. ;)

easter '08

we had to break out the furry winter boots and toggle coat during the hunt...cold and overcast in DFW.

i seriously love this picture. leave it to nonni to liven up tay's solo easter egg hunt!

concentrate, grasshopper...

*way* better eye-hand coordination this year!!!

works of art

this 'n that

so guess what i learned yesterday? la galaxy have signed another oregon state alum to their roster!!! yup...one of the newbies that i saw at the game 2 weeks ago, bryan jordan, played for osu for 4 years!!! that's awesome-2 beavs on the team. here's a fun video with the 2 of them hangin' out (at 0:53) while taping tv spots for the upcoming games:



as you have probably figured out by my lack of posts, school started back this week. yup. it's been a pretty good week. started off crappy though. started feeling sick on easter and it continued on for a couple of days. began feeling better on tuesday and has been progressing since, even though i have serious drainage and sinus congestion. my allergies are a real pain.

oh, finally watched monday's epi of the bachelor. is anyone else watching this season? what is UP with all the singing?!??! geez. i feel so embarrassed for HIM. how awkward. if you haven't yet, check out reality steve's posts about the past 2 episodes (click on "steve's HILARIOUS reality tv blog" to the right of my webpage)-sure as hell cracked *me* up! still have to watch how i met your mother with britney spears...will do that after i enter some grades online tonight. i read it was a good show. i'm glad *something* has gone right for that girl. sheesh.

hmmm, what else? well, nothin' much i guess...can't wait until the weekend-mls season starts and the galaxy plays colorado rapids on fox soccer channel. caught the usa/poland game last night...we won, 3-0. landon donovan (from la galaxy) assisted in 2 goals...woo-hoo! also managed to catch some highlights of david beckham's 100th cap game: england v. france. my principal walked in my classroom after school yesterday to me frantically trying to find a website to watch the game online (it started at 2:30). hey now, it was a historical game!!! unfortunately our district's firewall is a bad ass and wouldn't let most sites through. the ones that did show up would only work if i was in the UK or required payment (as if!).

ok, better get to work. oh, and if you happen to speak to/hear from the "missing in action" brother of mine, point him in my direction please. i'd like to know if he still lives. :)

peace out

embrace where you live

Fact: The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area in North Texas (USA) has more shopping centers per capita than any United States city or metropolitan area. (according to Wikipedia)

northpark is geared up for spring. gorgeous, don't you think?
i indulged today:

SNL, part deux

so it was a *big* time saturday night. it was amazing to see all the different beckham jerseys walking around the stadium (la galaxy, real madrid, england national, manchester u) before the game. everyone was milling around getting shirts, food or beer. fans checking out each other's shirts/jerseys. music rockin' on the stadium's loudspeakers...the anticipation in the air was very electric. here's one of the songs they played that just took me back & got me groovin (click the triangle to listen):


when the players came out onto the field i could hardly believe that i was seeing them in person, so *up close*. i mean, i've been watching them on tv, discovered their personalities, learned tidbits about them and now we were all there. in the same space. the la galaxy and me. oh, and 20,000 other fans. :) the guys looked good: cobi (now assistant coach), abel (who looked WAY taller in person than on tv), landon (called the best US-born player), peter (the veteran player), alan (the osu alum-go beavs!), chris (had an amazing bicycle kick goal in superliga last season), mike (the sleeper-he sleeps all the time & anywhere), steve (was backup gk and is now the starter), josh (a rookie last season & victim of a hilarious hotel prank last year) and of course, david. i was kinda bummed that kyle's not with the team anymore, he was one of my faves. he and ante both crack me up. (btw, ante was back in la with an injury.) joe's also moved on...went with frank yallop to san jose. :( so, i got a glimpse of the "new" galaxy-part of last year's team with the new people and the rooks.

watching david beckham & his "david beckham-esque" mannerisms live and being with other enthusiasts was unforgettable. the game was very exciting, especially for my section in the 2nd half since galaxy almost scored a goal right in front of us (landon got tangled up & fell on the ball).

can't wait to go again in may and yet again in july!!!

pizza hut park-frisco, texas

my bank!!! apparently they're a full service institution. not only do they serve my financial needs, they also help bring soccer to me :)

yup, the galaxy in the lone star state.

beckham's in town: very news reporter worthy!

mere and me before the game

what do you do when you're @ pizza hut park? eat pizza, of course!!! although i must admit that i barely ate my $7 personal pan pizza. i was way too excited!!!

alan gordon running out for warm ups...where's the osu fight song when you need it?!?!?!

the new coach, ruud gullit-i read he's hardcore.

former player/now asst coach, cobi jones

during warm ups. when i saw the boys bending over i suddenly felt envious and the need to say "boy, those people over there sure are lucky..." here's what a fan sitting in that section had to say on a blog:
"It was a fun time. Beckham got lightly booed at his introduction; Donovan got heavily booed on his; the rest of the team was ignored. During warmups, when Becks bent over to stretch, there were catcalls and whistles. Beckham and Donovan warmed up side-by-side, much to the delight of my picture-taking daughter.
During warmups, Beckham got serenaded by some guys singing "God Save the Queen" and he took much delight in that. Then they were chanting "David Beckham for England" and he turned around and gave them a thumbs up and a smile. His interaction with the crowd was great. At the end of the game, he walked to the center (after having a good apologetic laugh with the ref) and clapped to the crowd...acknowledging our section first (yea!) and the crowd responded appropriately."

i don't know who those men are, but they sure looked important up in the boxes. :) mere laughed at me when i took this. speaking of important people, england's national coach sent his #2 to assess beckham's fitness to decide if he should be included in the squad later this month. if so, he could have a chance at his 100th cap! (playing for the national team 100 times-only a handful of players have done this)

walking out and focusing on the kid. :) aww, love it.

after the national anthem

quick huddle before the game starts

fc dallas sets up for a free kick. i love david's body language here. it's like when tay goes, "come on, let's get the show on the road..."

landon working it with his yellow boots

abel rocks. i love him (and his hair). {throwing up the "rockstar" hand gesture}

you know what i noticed throughout the game? david directed a lot of the ball's traffic and passing with hand signals to his teammates.

i love pete too. he was on the sideline in front of us for like 30 minutes in the 2nd half. at first he was warming up and then he just started watching the game. i gave him a shout out when he was signaling for the ball that was kicked up in the stands above us. he smiled. i love pete and all, but somebody needs to seriously tell him that tucking his warm up jacket into his pants is not a good look for anyone. seriously.

and as i said before, david's notorious for clapping for the crowd at the end of the match in his david beckham way. even just the way this man claps makes me go W-O-W.

and as if the clapping wasn't enough, click on this picture for a larger version. just past the fence you'll see he is 1/2 naked, after giving his jersey to a designated little girl. {gasps} oh my.

SB '08

remember when we were in high school/college and this time of year would bring intense excitement for the new season? recall my friends and i shouting out "SPRING BREAK-WOOOOOO!!!" during our many escapades... {grins as i remember the trip to vegas during my junior year at osu}

and now...well, now i'm a mama. how's my spring break going? it's a rainy day in the dallas area and tay and i are in our jammies (much to her delight i said she could stay home from school today). tay's watching higglytown hereos while i'm sitting here enjoying my 4th cup of coffee. we're about to dye easter eggs...just waiting for them to cool. my, times sure have changed, huh? :)

will post more about the soccer game later (sorry dudes-easter eggs have a higher priority), but for now, enjoy a few videos from saturday night:

(this first vid is the corner kick i got picture of while he was setting the ball down)

saturday night LIVE

so close, i could see the individual *blades of grass*

going in after warm up

#23 never looked so good :)

mmm, love that form. flash bulb city...

setting himself up. he did 4 of his 8 corner kicks on our side.

getting into a scuffle with one of the fc dallas players. according to an interview with fc dallas' goal keeper, while they were both intensely expressing themselves, there was a language barrier: the fc dallas player spoke portugese while i'm sure david was giving him some nice choice words in english. :) he didn't get a yellow or red card for this, but he did get a yellow later on for arguing with the ref. throughout the game david was not happy with some of the calls or lack of calls. there was a take down right in front of us in the penalty box that was not called. should've had a pk. david & the guys were p-i-s-s-e-d, as were a lot of us in the stands.

at the end of the match, as always, he salutes the crowd for their attendance.

more to come later...tay wants to play freeze-dance. :)

crafty anna

my sister, the comedian. {chuckles and shakes head} came home to her care package on the doorstep-a few things from home that are nonexistent here in texas. while pulling out the goodies and smiling, i noticed the uniquely packaged jar of my beloved arare crackers ("affectionately" known by my haole friends as "the stinky crackers" because of the odor that wafts their way when i eat it around them). i started laughing...the way only my sis can make me laugh. can you guess which item it was?

love you ann.

sooner than i thought

guess who i'm seeing this saturday? originally it was a difficult one to get tickets for, but at the last minute ticketmaster released more seats to the public. mmmm-hmmm...3rd row, between midfield and the penalty box arc, bay-bee!!! hoping for a GOOD view of him!!! {looking up with tightly squeezed eyes & crossed fingers}

david beckham,

here. i. come.

thanks, mere!!!

TGIO

thank. god. it's (taks & pajama day). over.

as you can imagine, the kids were hyper about being able to come to school in their jammies. and with how hard they worked on taks, they deserved it. julie and i endure "the beating" every year, but we know it's totally worth it (it's really a day of crowd control more than anything else).!!!

the morning

with snow...this was yesterday. tay couldn't resist sticking her fingers in it before heading off to school!

TAKS chronicles

like my principals, i'm glad it's over. well, this round anyway. hopefully we'll get the results quickly like last year. i feel like a monstrous load has been lifted off of me (for now). i mean seriously, there were times while we were preparing for the test that i wanted to start playing this song:



oh there were some days where i had to dig DEEP. try to find a way to get the concept across. don't get me wrong. it's not that i don't believe in my students, but realistically (as it is the situation every year), some of them just aren't yet at the cognitive level they need to be at in order to reason through some of those skills and questions. during review, no matter all the hints, rephrasing, reteaching or different angles i tried to present the concept...some of them just couldn't get it consistently. anyhow, the kids worked hard and it was a long day for all of us.

the calm before "the storm".

jules and me sporting this year's TAKS shirt. the sun was shining pretty brightly and i couldn't get a good picture no matter the flash or setting on my camera. soooo irritated! from what i can make out, this was a good picture of us buds!

one more thing...{insert the kid's voice from jerry mcguire} did you know that texas hired former police officers to randomly monitor campuses across the state this year? yup, that's new. we were told in our training session that they would show up unannounced (but with credentials) to check us out. test security is HUGE this year. there wasn't any action at our campus, we're just a bunch of boring rule-followers. :)

obama's hilarious

from msnbc:
One of Sen. Barack Obama's surest applause lines comes about halfway into his standard stump speech. It goes like this:

“They whisper to me. They say, ‘Barack, I’m a Republican, but I support you.’ And I say, ‘Thank you. Why are we whispering?’”

although hillary won the primary (51% to 47%), the caucuses are still up in the air, attached with controversy. according to the radio's results, obama won in the delegate rich metropolitan areas: dallas, san antonio, houston and will rack up delegates from them while hillary did well with hispanic voters and the southern bordering communities. my county, collin, voted 55%-obama. :)

too close to call

wouldn't you know, my state's too close to call and it's the one everyone's watching because of its delegate-rich status!!! 64% of the votes are in, clinton-50% (1,101,147), obama-48% (1,047,042). yup, the serious but witty & sarcastic correspondents on msnbc (keith olbermann, joe scarborough-don't you just think of chandler from friends when you look at him??? & brian williams, aka tom brokaw jr, to name a few) are telling each other that this will probably go on into the AM. i gotta go to bed...TAKS test tomorrow. will have to wake up and see what transpired...

march 4th...yes, we can.

oh, and don't cuss out the teacher. (we don't like that...)

sneak post

hello march. glad you're here. plainly? february sucked...for many reasons. anyhow, although we haven't yet taken our state reading test (that's this coming wednesday), i had a few minutes to myself before the "to-do's" started nagging my consciousness. armed with my cup of coffee and my laptop, i thought i'd give a quick shout out to ya.

woke up EARLY to tay proclaiming that she slept all night in her big girl bed-we've been having a cycle of creeping into mama's bed in the middle of the night. various reasons, all of which i am hoping to work through. it's been a rough road for my little girl... spiderwick chronicles didn't help either, but i am keeping my fingers crossed that with tay's usual repetitive viewing of a new movie (the latest barbie movie, mariposa was just released) this weekend, it'll wipe out spiderwick's images.

loving the sky this morning. it's on the verge of raining...springtime. the cool air, bloomed flowers right outside my window, birds chirping. when i look at the world from that point of view, things really are pleasant and serene. ahhh...namaste. :)

grandma, here's urbandictionary.com's definition for ya-
Namaste: Buddhist word - said at the end of a mediation, along with "om shanti" - meaning peace be with you etc